One of the greatest challenges of legal translations is that although it may seem that a term in one language has a precise equivalent in another, it in fact has a broader or narrower meaning.

For example, the Polish term spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością is usually translated as a limited liability company, which is a more or less direct translation of the original. The problem is that within US law, the closest equivalent (conceptually speaking) would be private corporation.

Another key issue is variation within a given language. When translating into English, for example, will your audience be based in the UK, USA or Australia? If the UK, in Scotland or England? All of these countries have distinct legal systems, but often use the same terminology to designate distinct or only partially overlapping concepts.

Likewise, the different varieties of Spanish use legal terms in different ways. In peninsular Spanish, jurisprudencia means legal philosophy (in other words, it is a cognate of the English jurisprudence), but in Mexico jurisprudencia refers to the event of the Mexican Supreme Court resolving a case in the same way five times and thus establishing a binding legal precedent.

Not being aware of issues such as these leads to – at best – confusion or – at worst – grave misunderstandings.

As with financial or technical translations, it is essential that legal translations are absolutely accurate. QuickSilver’s team of specialised translators ensure that the translation of your legal documents is totally faithful, and that legal terminology is rendered into the precise equivalent in the target language.